Released 08/12/67, Parlophone
From the fanfare carnival antics of the title track, you just know this is going to be a cracking record. Released after Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and originally half the size – it being to the soundtrack of the same name – The Beatles returned with a corker. With hits stemming from love-feulled inspiration to the downright weird, it’s a wonder that more people don’t consider this their favourite Beatles album.
Kicking off with 'Magical Mystery Tour', the four Liverpudlians beg you to roll up as they whisk you off to their colourful, far-away land. An explosion of locomotive-like rhythm and psychedelia, this first offering leads us lovingly into 'The Fool On The Hill'; a bitter-sweet swirl of woodwind and brass that sends you spinning. This track alone seems reason enough to love Magical Mystery Tour, until you realise there are nine gems left just waiting for you. Following on, we reach the jaunty instrumental 'Flying' and sinister, organ-fuelled 'Blue Jay Way', before settling on 'Your Mother Should Know'; a fantastic, foot-tapping number that has you singing along in no time.
It’s then time for 'I Am The Walrus'; a track which has become, quite rightly so, Beatles gold. Beginning with brass that would seem more at home at the circus, 'I Am The Walrus' amazes and astounds with its kooky orchestral melody and even kookier lyrics. So brilliantly performed is it that John Lennon seems utterly profound as he crows:
“Yellow matter custard dripping from a dead dog’s eye
Crabalocker fishwife. Pornographic priestess
Boy, you been a naughty girl. You let your knickers down"
It’s then off to more lovely haziness as The Beatles crack out the sweet misunderstandings of 'Hello Goodbye', before settling on two more classics; the first being 'Strawberry Fields Forever'. Regarded by many as their favourite Beatles song; it’s concoction of bizarre lyrics from Lennon, sung with such peaceful grace, aids to create a floaty atmosphere that inspires as much as it does deviate into oddness.
After such distilling quiet, The Beatles bring back the cheery pop with 'Penny Lane'. The soap opera-like story of a lane of great characters, 'Penny Lane' doles out great lashings of fun but with the thought-provoking undertone that maybe not everything is completely perfect in 'Penny Lane' after all.
We finally make it to 'Baby You’re A Rich Man' before having the majestic trumpets blare out and call for one of The Beatles’ most iconic tracks; 'All You Need Is Love'. Such a simple track, it’s the slow climb leading to epic climax that makes this tune work so well over others (with Paul McCartney conjuring up nostalgia too with his cries of “She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah!”). 'All You Need Is Love' has stood the test of time, like most Beatles songs, and so can be heard on any street corner from any bystander at any time of day.
It’s true that The Beatles created some of the most incredible music of our time and have had amazing commercial success, selling more than one billion records (a feat only matched by Elvis Presley) but when it comes to their greatest albums, this one is sometimes overlooked. Maybe it’s the fact that it was originally a soundtrack and so may be discounted by certain folk, but that should only give it more merit as it’s improved with the added sprinkles of weirdness that were needed for the film. This album is testament to The Beatles’ appeal – how they could go as far from middle of the road as possible and still hold tightly onto Beatlemania. Yes, there have been more eclectic albums from the boys, like The White Album, but this 1967 offering is so much more accomplished.
Sometimes it’s fun just to sit back, think about bands like The Beatles and imagine the same fab four who wrote 'She Loves You' creating an album as bohemian as Magical Mystery Tour. It seems impossible and yet they did it. It’s albums like this one that are delightful proof as to why so many artists are still influenced by them to this day
Posted In Classic Albums, Sep 22 2009.
Words - Rich